Looking for design inspiration.

[ducksupernewbie]

I have zero artistic ability, or vision. So hopefully someone where is more savvy than me with garden design.
We are currently renovating an older house, and adding an addition, so the entire garden has been dug up. I've attached two pictures, one of the aerial view of the garden, the black is where the new fence is going, and the red are the new additions to the house, so it's not going to be garden anymore.

I was trying to get ideas of where to put the chicken coop, a greenhouse and growing area, patio area and a small green area for the kids to play in.

Would love to hear everyone's ideas!! If I can design it now, while the entire thing is dug up, we can run water and electric to the chicken coop, and the greenhouse if wanted, which will be a great convenience down the line when everything is established. The second picture is just a google image of looking at the house from the corner of the street, as the aerial view makes it look much larger than it is.

I'm in zone 7, New York, around 40 mins outside of Manhattan. We have no neighbors either side, or behind us, although two houses across the street.

 

[silkiecuddles]

Hmm. I've never designed a farm before. Ask @dan26552 . He may have a good idea

Congrats on your little homestead! My family and I live on about 14 acres. We have horses, ducks, chickens, dogs, cats, and a garden. It's an awesome lifestyle

 

[lazy gardener]

Silkiecuddles: Love your Bible verse! How true!

Ducksupernewbie: How bout some more info: Size of lot inside fence. What type of fence? Orientation of house/fencing in relation to the sun. Where is the service exit from the house? The one you'll be using when you go out to tend chickens? Are you ever likely to have neighbors to either side or behind? IMO, the most important thing is to place your garden where it gets full sun. Without sun, you'll be greatly limited. Then, you can place the other items accordingly, bearing in mind that you don't want to have your coop casting shade on the garden. Also, remember that a tree that's not a problem now, can grow to be a huge problem both in terms of shade and root encroachment in 10 short years.

 

[ducksupernewbie]

Hi Lazy Gardener,

The lot size is .25, I don't have the exact measurements of the yard. I'll get them today. The fence is those white PVC fences. The entire garden is in full sun. At the back beside the shed, will be the only shaded areas, because of the house. The back door is on the crook of the new addition at the side. We don't have any trees in our part of the garden, they were all torn down by the previous owner, there's some trees in the lot behind us, that has a restriction on it, that it can't be built on. The trees at the front are completely gone. Here's a bigger aerial view, showing the house, we've a road one side, and a church car park the other, so very little chance of a house being built either side during our lifetime.

I would however LOVE to plant an apple tree, and possibly a pear tree somewhere also.

 

[Ridgerunner]

First you might checkout the sister gardening forum. There are some really good people over there that would love to help you. It’s a small friendly site that may joke around a lot but there are some really good gardeners there and a lot keep chickens. Many have greenhouses too. Some even live in New York.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/

As LG said, looking down the road is important. You might even consider fruit trees.

If you can I encourage you to run electric and water to your coop and greenhouse. It’s tremendously convenient for the coop. Consider self-draining hydrants so you don’t have to worry about freezing. There are many different sizes and ways to use a greenhouse, but having a thermostat controlled heater for really cold times and an automatic vent for warm days can really extend your use of a greenhouse. Running water and electric is not really cheap but man is it convenient.

To me the most important thing about locating a coop and run is drainage. A wet coop or run is a dangerous coop and run, plus it will likely stink. Position them on top of a high spot or on a slope so water drains away. Never ever put them where water drains to or stands. Everything else you can work around.

You probably don’t want the coop or run right next to the house. They can be loud and when the weather sets in wet you have the potential for it to smell.

I don’t know how well you know your plot of land. I have some spots that are ridiculously rocky and some that practically have no rocks. That’s on just two acres. More by luck than anything else, I put my orchard and chicken run in the rocky area and the garden in a not rocky area. I was real lucky.

I don’t see a lot of slope in your photo but it looks like there might be some. Cold air is heavier than warm air and can settle into low spots. That means they are more prone to frost. Try to avoid putting your orchard or garden in frost pockets.

Too wet is more of a problem with gardens and orchards that too dry. Most garden plants and trees like well-drained soil. If their roots are too wet they can die. Avoid areas that water drains to or stands.

You might look up “perc test” to see how to check for drainage. That’s a test of how fast water drains away. That’s more for locating trees than anything else.

A soils analysis can really help when starting your garden. At least you know where you are starting from nutrition, soil type, and pH wise. Your county extension agent can help you with that. Look in the phone book under county government of find them online.

If you are on a septic system avoid that area for a garden and orchard. Avoiding it with coop and run is probably a good idea too. The potential for contamination is really pretty low if it is working right, but tree roots can plug drain lines and working on top of them can crush drain lines or compact the soil.

Putting your coop and run next to the garden often works out really well. You can feed garden wastes to the chickens, they will eat some bugs, and in the fall you might turn your chickens loose in the garden to clean it up and fertilize it. Put your compost pile nearby too, maybe even in the run so the chickens will keep it stirred for you. You will want a compost pile. Every gardener needs one.

I have not seen many of these but some people build a chicken moat. That’s where the run surrounds or partially surrounds the garden. The idea is that the chickens intercept a lot of the bugs that are headed to your garden. I don’t know how well that actually works but if I were starting over I’d do something along those lines.

On person on that gardening forum has their area around the coop fenced into sections. On section remains fallow, another is the chicken run, and others are the garden. Every year she rotates these sections.

A lot of what you do can depend on whether you will use raised-beds, do a more conventional garden, a combination or something else. You have a blank canvas. There are so many different ways you could go with it. Good luck!